Author
Topic: Amur maple (Read 2685 times)

I managed to kill all my maples that were coming along this year except for this and another Amur. A pile of dead logs that cost more than my mortgage payment didn't make me happy, but this Amur is taking the sting out a little bit. It went into an Anderson flat last spring, may need to go into something smaller this coming spring.

Take a look at the smaller horizontal branches on the lower left and right. I see something like this on a lot of our deciduous trees growing around here but something doesn't look right to me. Do they need to go or is it just because they're so undeveloped as of now? I like the look so far of the heavy sub-trunk/leaders ascending in different directions with the smaller horizontal branches to fill things out, just not sure I'm going about it the right way.

Sorry for the busy backgrounds, my little chunk of counter is good for showing most of my trees, not so much for this one. Pics are from March, April, May, and 2 days ago.

Updated after wiring last week. I thought about where I wanted the tree to go and came to the conclusion it would be brain dead to keep the secondary branching on such a horizontal level so I started trying to correct them. Wire's a little ugly looking, it had been a while. I'm not sure if the lowest right secondary branch will be kept or not, it looks odd coming off the bottom. All of the secondary branching will be cut back in the spring to refine them, just trying to set branching angles at the moment.

What's your overall vision for this tree? It seems the primary branches are already quite thick. Are you thinking a much larger tree?

That's my question as well...what are you working towards in terms of overall tree size, foliage distribution, etc.

I'd suggest taking some good photos of it once the leaves have dropped...photos that show the entire tree from a number of different views with a plain background, that might help people see the potential based on the trunk/branch structure.

Oh, and I may have missed it - but what is the approximate height and trunk thickness of the tree?

Chris

Edited to add - oops, didn't notice the beer bottle for size reference...disregard that last question!

What's your overall vision for this tree? It seems the primary branches are already quite thick. Are you thinking a much larger tree?

Floundering a bit with this one to be honest. I don't know if the best way forward is to reduce the primary branching or move forward with what's already in place. The trunk is around 3 1/2"- 3 3/4" if I remember correctly. I think I'd feel pretty safe cutting hard into the primary branches if that's what is needed.

Things I like about the tree the most at this time is the moderately interesting trunk and particularly the angle and placement of the primary branches (trunks? sub trunks? anywho). I think there's a good basic structure in there, I'm just stumbling when it comes to continued development.

The only thing I'm not really open to is reducing this down to the trunk for a sumo type maple.

I also think the primary branches are large and I would, like also mentioned, envision the size of the tree. With a trunk diam. that big, I'd imagine for me, something along the lines of 18-24". But that's entirely up to you. If that's the size, then start working on the secondary branching. And maybe you guy wire those lg. branches and slowly bend them downward over time? Develop a new leader and start working on some taper as well as primary branch development. Just my opinion of cours